Although the era of omnipresent Stephen King movie adaptations seems to have come to an end, the best-selling horror author’s work remains as popular as ever amongst filmmakers and studios. Remakes of The Stand and It are currently on the horizon, a long-awaited adaptation of his fantasy saga The Dark Tower appears to have finally laid a solid foundation at Sony, and now the novella In the Tall Grass is getting ready to go in front of the cameras, courtesy of Splice director Vincenzo Natali.
The novella first appeared in the pages of Esquire magazine, and tells the story of two siblings on a road trip in Kansas. When they stop to investigate a child’s screams in a field of (you guessed it) tall grass, they become trapped in a spacial anomaly, turning the grass into a dastardly labyrinth. Worse yet, they soon discover that they are not alone in the underbrush. Stephen King co-wrote the story with author Joe Hill (Horns), who is also King’s son.
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“Who would think that grass could be frightening,” Vincenzo Natali tells Screen Daily, the publication that broke the story. “Trust Stephen King and Joe Hill to find a way. They have transformed an otherwise innocuous Kansas field into a stage for some of the most disturbing horror fiction I have ever read.”
It seems like an easy fit for Natali, whose films often involve characters who are trapped in a deadly maze. His first feature, Cube (soon to be remade), was about a group of strangers mysteriously whisked away to a giant cube comprised of even smaller cubes – many of which contain lethal deathtraps – who must work together to solve the puzzle. His most recent feature, Haunter, was about a young teenager unable to leave her house, and forced to relive the same horrifying day over and over again until she uncovers the disturbing secret of her cursed existence.
In the Tall Grass will begin filming in September, and is currently raising more financing at the Cannes Film Festival.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
